AUSTIN, TX : Hazing preceded crash that killed college student in football spirit group on Monday, 19th November 2018

The family of a University of Texas student who died a month after the pickup he was riding in wrecked while returning from an off-campus retreat says it has learned that hazing took place at the event.

The allegation targets the Texas Cowboys, a prominent spirit group that fires Smokey the Cannon after Longhorn scores at home football games. The group was disbanded for five years after a member drowned in the Colorado River in 1995 following what UT officials later ruled was hours of alcohol-fueled hazing.

Nicholas Cumberland, 20, died about a month after a crash Sept. 30 on U.S. 183 outside Lometa, in Lampasas County, about 85 miles northwest of Austin. A GMC Canyon pickup rolled over at 5:43 a.m. after the driver fell asleep, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety crash report obtained by the American-Statesman. Cumberland and three others in the back seat were not wearing seat belts, and he was ejected, the report said.

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